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As a teen I was a major pain in the butt to my family, & my education, I was born with smarts and landed really great jobs where I was able to make a pretty penny. Making good money is partially why I had not made the move to Mexico in the first place.

God had to put me in a financial situation, where I had nothing to lose except my family in order to drop everything and move. Six months ago we were not hurting for money, YET but I wasn’t making any.

My kids did not care about financial responsibility. Everything they wanted they got, no matter how they behaved or what their report card showed. They would charge us if we asked them to pick up a piece of paper. Okay they still do this but now its because we have made them responsible, in other words they pay for that candy habit. They know what everything costs, including the cooking oil I use to make their meals.

Johnny understands the currant peso to dollar and is accurate in his conversions. I cheat. I just add a zero and know I’m in the vicinity when it comes to small amounts. Example: 100 dollars is about 1000 pesos or 50 pesos is about 5 dollars. (use my title for the current conversion)

I understand why so many Mexican’s go “al Norte”. Most of them are making 1200.00 Pesos a week working more than 8 hour days and a 6 day work week. Besides no taxes and most owning their home, and practically free water, nothing else cost less in Mexico. Actually, for some reason all these huge companies, sell me a much smaller bag of chips or coca cola bottle for a few pesos more than I would pay back home.

As far as me understanding why they go North, doesn’t mean I agree with them going illegally, but realistically speaking no one could pay all the fees there is to pay to get paperwork, do the leg work and there is still no guarantee you will be able to go. Feeding their family now is more important than doing time later.

To my facebook family, I said I was blessed and I would blog today. This is why.

We are Christian, not good ones. As a matter of fact, we set a terrible example of Christians. I do know J has a relationship with God I do not understand and I am quite jealous of because God has never spoken to me the way I believe he has spoken to him. (I hope he will some day share with you like he has with me)

At the end of December, the truck and my visitor’s pass expires. I have to either drive to the border and renew my pass for another six months or pay the fees to change why I am here, the same applies to the truck the border or get it legalized. Financially, we are more than comfortable, we have spending money (mostly thanks to Dad), if I saved that spending money I could afford to pay these fees. A week ago we decided it would be cheaper just to drive to the border, for two reasons, we don’t want to be on a budget, and we love road trips. Still, we would look at this driving to the border situation again six months later.

Sunday, we were going to Guadalajara for some shopping at the gas station I realized I forgot our shopping money at home. We decided to try again on Monday. While in Costco we met an American couple Roberto y Roberta, who asked about our English speaking kids. Not an I need money conversation, it was a pleasant conversation, we were shopping! This couple said God told them to give us a little something. Today, I paid the amount needed to start the paperwork so I can maybe soon be a Mexican Citizen.

I knew one of the first things I had to get the ball rolling on, was passports. The faster I got them, the faster I could leave. Except you need money, which I didn’t have enough of thanks to our spending habits. I got an extra check from hubby’s last job, quickly withdrew the boys out of school, my thoughts were I better do it now that I have the money. You know because a fart would last longer in my hands.

We arrive at the post office only to find out they stop processing passports at 3 pm. We were 5 minutes late. They were testing at school the next day, so I had to grip that money tight for yet another day.

May 1st we finally got it done. Three passports, ball rolling! Yeah I know three; they accepted paperwork only for the kids. They took one look at my birth certificate and didn’t accept it. Apparently, if you have the short form, a specific letter has to be on it. I was told I had to order the long form. *eye roll*

I tried to get it done at the local Pasadena office, but they only print short forms and there was no guarantee that the letter would be on it. *eye roll*

Why did I ask the boys if they wanted to go back to school? Discovery green with my kids the rest of the day.

I ordered my Long Form Birth Certificate on-line the next day. It finally came in on Monday, May, 13. It takes about six weeks for the passports to come in so I am like three weeks behind the kids. I am going Today, to get mine.

Passports: You must have: (1) Birth Certificate (get anything you might need your birth certificate for, taken care of before, as they keep it and will mail it back to you by mail), (2) ID, (3) DS-11 form filled out, & (4) DS-3053 Parental Consent Notarized or both parents must be present.

(5) Passport picture (you can’t duck face, be wearing anything in your hair or have glasses on). We took our pictures at the post office $15.00 USD each. You can take them at Walgreens and CVS too but a friend told me she went to Walgreens and the post office did not accept them so she had to retake them. She paid twice.

US Passport Book: Adults $110.00 + $25.00 USD execution fee (each). Good for 10 years, used to travel by air, water or land. Minors (16 & under): $80.00 + $25.00 USD execution fee (each). Good for 5 years, used to travel by air, water or land.

US Passport Card: Adults $30.00 + $25.00 USD execution fee (each). Good for 10 years, used to travel by water or land. Minors (16 & under): $15.00 + $25.00 USD execution fee (each). Good for 5 years, used to travel by water or land.

I’m getting the book incase I have to come back for rental properties or other emergencies, but the kids is only good for five years I doubt we will have the income to fly home anytime soon, so got them cards.